


Unexpected, But Not Unwanted

by Weevilo707



Category: Homestuck
Genre: M/M, Polyamory, Post Act 7, boys attempting to communicate and being understanding, clueless dave, flirting gamzee, human dating davekat, pale gamkar, pitch gamdave, poly!dave, poly!karkat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-30
Updated: 2016-05-30
Packaged: 2018-07-11 03:20:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7026460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Weevilo707/pseuds/Weevilo707
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There’s a lot of shit that takes some getting used to about this new universe.</p><p>But the one thing that took you the longest to even begin to understand was the clown.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unexpected, But Not Unwanted

There’s a lot of shit that takes some getting used to about this new universe.

It wasn’t like you expected to just have a hang on every little thing right from the get go, but you didn’t anticipate it being so _much_ either. You’re not even sure if you were ever all that certain you would make it this far. You did though, so now all that’s left is to try and work through all the issues the game left you all without completely breaking down like the shittiest game of emotional Jenga imaginable.

You think you’re managing it pretty okay so far, all things considered.

The nightmares aren’t anything new, and you didn’t expect them to stop, so that’s not something you gotta get used to anymore. The constant nagging feeling in the back of your head telling you that something’s going to go wrong at any moment isn’t something you saw coming, but you can understand it. You don’t think you ever really saw all of this ending. It did though, and while you _know_ that, you can’t quite bring yourself to believe it.

You’re pretty sure everyone else feels the same way. No one is quite at east in this new universe yet. You’re all waiting for a second shoe that’s not there anymore to drop.

There are some good things to get used to. You get to hang out with John and Jade in actual real life person. That’s pretty damn great, even if it can leave you at a loss sometimes. You aren’t sure if you built them up in your head as these unshakable happy people or if the game just did that much damage, but it’s probably a bit of both.

It unnerves you a bit to see them trying to deal with the crap the game threw at them. John one of only two survivors from a timeline where everything that could go wrong did, and Jade left on her own for three goddamn years. From what you can tell though they seem to be trying to help each other through it.

There are also the scratched kids, it’s pretty nice to have some new faces around. Even if the faces are actually pretty familiar. Still, you like them, they’re all just as fucked up as your whole crew.

It’s also just really nice thinking of Dirk and Roxy as family.

There’s a whole bunch of other little practical things to get used to too. Who’s living where and such. That questions turns out to be pretty useless, since you all tend to spend a lot of time in each other’s ‘homes’ and more often than not will end up sleeping over and such. As it stands it’s more like you all live together in some big complex and the only thing that matters is who’s room is where, and even then that’s only some of the time.

Still, there’s a whole planet to explore, and a bunch of cool little chess people running around, and a troll race to bring back to life. There are more than enough new and strange things to keep you busy and bewildered.

Despite all of that though, the one thing that leaves you feeling the most uncertain and out of place at first is the clown.

You never really knew what to make of him. You barely fucking saw the dude during the three year trip to the new session. You didn’t even know it was possible to see someone that little when living in such close proximity, and you grew up with fucking Bro. Whenever he was mentioned, Vriska would usually shut down the conversation fast. She would just insist that she had the whole thing under control and not to worry about _him._

You asked Karkat about him a few times, because you knew they used to be pretty close. He’d usually attempt to dismiss the subject too, although it was pretty easy for you to tell that he was still worried about the guy deep down. Or maybe not even that deep, Karkat tends to wear all his feelings right on his sleeve after all.

You’re not sure if any of you ever accounted for him being in the new universe. At the very least, you're pretty damn certain that the thought never occurred to you.

Once he was here though, Karkat refused to let him go wander off to some distant corner of the planet on his own, never to be seen again, talked only about in whispers. Sometimes, at night, people swear that they can hear a distant echoing honk in the underbrush or up above in the treetops, but they could never be completely sure.

Or not, since yeah Karkat wouldn’t let him go by way of creepy clown urban legend.

Despite the slight disappointment you had with that, things seemed to go okay for a while. You still didn’t exactly talk to the guy, but he didn’t seem all that talkative to begin with. You’re pretty sure he only really talks to Karkat. And Dirk, actually.

You asked Dirk what that was about, but he didn’t seem to know himself. The most you could get out of him was that the dude was a pretty decent rapper and had good taste in puppets.

That last thing was more than enough reason for you to be perfectly happy with never talking to him as long as you both shall live.

All of that though was nothing compared to the fucking bomb Karkat had dropped on you one day, maybe two months after you all first got into the new universe.

You didn’t see anything wrong or worrying with Karkat and Gamzee hanging out a lot. Karkat was pretty much Gamzee's only real friend after all. Besides, you were all hanging out with a bunch of different people now, and it wasn’t like you two still weren’t seeing each other a hell of a lot. Not by a long shot, Karkat was still the person you spent the most time with, and the same with you to him. Nothing had changed about your relationship for you to think that anything was up at all.

You guess that’s because the second something was up, Karkat came to talk to you about it.

You knew it was feeling jam time as soon as Karkat had slumped into the room, flopping down half on you where you were sitting on the bed. That wasn’t anything new, but the topic was something you hadn’t addressed in a long time.

Your relationship.

Karkat swore up and down that he’d do whatever you were comfortable with. He just wanted to bring this up and set boundaries before he ‘completely and utterly fucked the bests thing to ever happen to me all because some clown is pitiful as fuck and I can’t control my own goddamn feelings’ in his words.

You’re pretty damn sure that if you told Karkat to avoid Gamzee completely he would have in a heartbeat. You actually considered it a hell of a lot. You were not about to lose Karkat because of this.

Cutting him off seemed like a pretty scummy thing to do though.

In the end you both agreed to just keep an eye on it. You’re not sure if either of you were too positive what that even meant, but it was all you could come up with at the time.

You also ended up making out and cuddling a lot that night, because you were both emotional and you just wanted to reassure Karkat that this didn’t change anything.

You guess that wasn’t entirely true though. It did change things. The next few months were confusing as fuck for everyone involved. You know Karkat had it the worst, and you tried your best to be understanding but you’re pretty sure you just fucked it up even more at times. You think at one point Karkat tried to cut off the friendship with Gamzee entirely, even though you told him he didn’t have to.

It took a long time, and even longer for Karkat to believe you, but you somehow managed to accept this as a thing. You still weren’t used to it, but it didn’t bother you as much as you felt like it should.

That was even scarier than the actual fact that Karkat has a pale thing with Gamzee. You’re pretty sure you’re not supposed to be okay with that. When it comes down to it though, above everything and anything else you just want Karkat to be happy. So if that meant he wants to take care of the clown and talk to him about emotions and keep him safe, you guess that’s fine by you.

There was one thing with that though that you weren’t expecting. Now you had to get used to him being around all the time.

It wasn’t like he wasn’t around before you all settled to make their pale thing official. Of course him and Karkat ended up hanging out a lot, but you didn’t exactly go out of your way to see Gamzee. You still didn’t after this, but it just became sort of inevitable.

As it turns out, both you and Gamzee are incredibly clingy people, and Karkat happened to be the main target of that clinginess for the both of you.

It was never too bad when Karkat’s around, because you both would just focus on him and ignore each other. You don’t think Karkat liked the whole pretending-the-other-person-doesn’t-exist thing, but you liked to think of it as a silent agreement between you and Gamzee. As long as the both of you just had Karkat’s best interest at heart, there wasn’t going to be any problems.

It worked too, for a while at least. You never got the feeling that Gamzee liked you all that much, but you couldn’t say you were too enthusiastic about him either, so you didn’t see the big deal.

The first time Gamzee showed up when Karkat wasn’t around you’re pretty sure there wasn’t any sort of ulterior motive. He didn’t seem all that pleased finding only you there, and he asked you ‘if you’d seen his karbro around anywhere?’

You told him that he’d joined John and Jake’s movie night tonight and he nodded, left and that was the end of it. Things like that happened every so often, sometimes you’d even be the one to head over to where you knew he was to see if he knew where Karkat had gotten off to. All in all not anything that was a big enough deal to take any notice of. For two people dating the same guy, you managed to still keep as bare minimum contact as you could get.

So when one day you just found him picking through your fridge with no Karkat in sight, it definitely stuck out at you. You waited for the question on Karkat’s whereabouts, but it never came. Instead he just stuffed a cheese stick in his mouth and grabbed one of the orange soda cans you kept for whenever Dirk was around. With that, he gave you a little wave before walking straight out of the room and leaving the house without a single word.

You had no fucking idea what that was about, and you sent Karkat a text stating ‘dude your clown boyfriend just stole my food wtf’ before checking to see if he ate anything else before you saw him. Not much, and it wasn’t like you couldn’t replace anything he took.

This sort of thing started happening strangely frequently after that. You’d find him just in your house with no legitimate reason to be there. Sometimes he would ask about Karkat and be on his way, but that seemed to be less and less of the reason why he was around. Nope, instead of looking for Karkat it seemed more like his purpose for being there centered around stealing your food or messing with your shit or giving you these weird little looks that you had no idea what to make of.

You figured maybe this was his way of trying to make friends. You didn’t know shit about troll clowns after all, and it wasn’t like it was a bad idea. You’re pretty sure Karkat wished the two of you could get on more. Maybe this was his weird clown version of extending an olive branch. Just acting like the two of you were on good enough terms for him to just waltz in and do whatever he felt like until eventually you actually are. You could go along with something like that, especially for Karkat.

So you figured there couldn’t be any harm in trying to talk to the guy some.

It turns out there is some harm though, and that harm is that he’s fucking annoying as shit.

You don’t know how Dirk puts up with him. You don’t know how _Karkat_ puts up with him. The asshat is absolutely infuriating a good 70% of the time. The other 30% is reserved to him making so little sense that you don’t even know how to feel.

You thought for a while that this is just how he is. The more you’re around him though, the more you’re starting to get the feeling that he’s fucking with you.

It wasn’t like you had much of a basis for this hypothesis to begin with though. You asked around if Gamzee seemed weird to everyone else. The answer was, well yeah of fucking course he’s weird, what kind of question is that Dave? He’s an alien clown who went on a murder spree at one point and is sort of co-dating your boyfriend and the only other person he seems to get along with is _Dirk._ Yes he is weird.

So yeah, asking general people didn’t get you anywhere. You tried asking Dirk, since he seemed closest to actually just being the dude’s friend. If anyone would know if this is normal friend making tactics it’d be him.

You like Dirk, things were awkward at first for the both of you, but you do genuinely care for the guy and think of him as a brother. God damn though, can he be full of cryptic bullshit sometimes.

The only answer you got was something along the lines of ‘he doesn’t act that way around me’ and ‘seems to me like the guy is intentionally trying to get your goat man, better keep an eye out before to goes and plunders all your livestock right out from under you and you end up dying a slow and horrible death over the winter months from a severe and horrendous lack of goat products to eat.’

You thought you had a problem with metaphors getting away from you.

Still, from that conversation you could safely say that not only was Gamzee acting weird around you, but that he was intentionally trying to annoy you.

To say that pissed you off just a little bit would be a smidgen of an understatement.

You could have been a hell of a lot worse about all of the shit that went down than you were. Sure you didn’t actually give a shit about what happened to Gamzee for the most part, but you _could have_ kept Karkat away from him. Sure you didn’t just immediately go ‘yes, date my boyfriend, we can set up a schedule and have a _great_ time’ either, but you were hell of a lot more accommodating that you strictly needed to be. Definitely not perfect, but not anything for Gamzee to try and get these petty little revenges against you.

You did not want to bring Karkat into this though. He still had doubts that you were actually okay with this sometime. Poor guy’s always so worried that he was going to fuck up and lose everyone. You weren't about to put even more doubt into his head. 

So yeah, going to Karkat about this was out of the question. Besides, you’re all mature almost-adults, you could figure out a way to solve this without relying on Karkat to referee between the two of you.

And if your first mature move was to shake up all the soda cans in your fridge for the next time Gamzee decided to take one, well, that’s why you’re all still _almost_ -adults.

Also, if Dirk happened to accidentally grab one the next day, well, you suppose all wars have some civilian casualties.

You don’t know when you started thinking of this as a ‘war’ but that’s what it quickly seemed to delve into. Like, you’ve seen your fair share of prank wars since you all got to this new universe between the three crockerberts around. While yours isn’t quite as spectacular you’d like to think that you could hold up pretty well based on this.

Gamzee is a fucking clown, of course he’d be able to hold up. You’re pretty damn sure in the few times he’s interacted with said crockerberts multiple people got pies in the face. You think that John made that happen just so that they could live out the cliché.

At least you both seem to be on the same page with this as you’ve been with everything else. Anything’s cool as long as Karkat is kept happy and out of it.

You’re pretty sure he’s got some sort of clue that something’s going on, but he doesn’t ask you about it. From what you can tell he doesn’t ask Gamzee either, so it’s probably okay.

You started this because you were annoyed as fuck with the dude, and that is still a part of it, but as time goes on you just might start having a bit of fun as well. You don’t like having to be on the edge waiting for something dangerous to happen, but none of Gamzee’s pranks are ever anything that could cause you harm.

It’s stealing your apple juice or replacing your sweet bro and hella jeff comics with winky clown faces or putting super glue in your shoes so that your socks get permanently stuck inside when you try to take them off. 

It’s fun and you’re starting to spend more and more time trying to think up new ways to get back at him.

You’re laying out plans for one such attempt at comeuppance when Karkat awkwardly shuffles into the room. You don’t bother to look over when he gets close, instead just reaching an arm out to pull him into a side hug. He doesn’t try to squirm away or anything, instead just leaning against you and looks over your scribble of what’s supposed to be a goop canon.

You figure you’ll probably have to simplify it to just having a bucket of something slimy drop on his head to fuck up his already rats nest of hair. Only you’ll have to find something other than a bucket to use, like a pot or something? Maybe going with a bucket would be a good idea though, just to fuck with him even more.

“You and Gamzee have been… getting along, recently,” Karkat says after a moment. You stop sketching to consider this for a moment.

“Yeeessss?” you say very slowly, not sure if ‘getting along’ are the right words. “I mean maybe? I guess so?” you add, no idea what the actual right answer is.

“I don’t mind,” Karkat says, and this time you have to look at him because you didn’t think there was any reason for him to mind. “I mean, it’s good. That you two are, you know, finding a way to uh, bond,” he adds, still sounding very unsure and you have no idea what’s going on here.

“Right, I guess that’s good?” you say, before you realize that you had been trying to keep the whole prank war from Karkat. “Wait, did Gamzee tell you about all the pranks?” you ask, and the unamused look that falls over Karkat’s face would be hilarious if it wasn’t directed right at you.

“Dave, I- are you telling me it was supposed to be a secret? I have seen both of you setting those things up, and the times when I _don’t_ see you I end up walking into them half the time myself!” he says and okay, you guess you do remember things like that happening a few times. A bit more than a few, but you thought maybe he just didn’t notice? Yeah okay never mind, Karkat is way too smart not to have seen what was up a long time ago.

“Yeah okay, fair point,” you give him, and Karkat’s whole annoyed eye roll is ruined by the small smile he can’t quite keep down.

“Well, the point is, it’s all totally fine by me, so you don’t have to worry about whatever,” Karkat tells you, and you’re a little bit confused again. You don’t really know what Karkat is, giving you permission on? You guess? That’s kind of what it sounds like, at any rate.

“Okaaaay then,” you say, figuring you should just be happy that Karkat is apparently happy with you two doing this. You did think that he would want you both to be friends after all. Maybe he didn't think that friendship would consist of pranking the fuck out of each other, but stranger things have happened. “So, if you’re cool with it then, should I use a bucket to drop honey in his hair, or something else?” you ask. Karkat immediately groans at you, and you can almost feel the regret radiating off of him.

“For the love of fuck don’t use a bucket,” he says, and you smile and nod at him.

“Right, use a bucket, good idea,” he punches you, but it’s worth it to see him all adorable and flustered.

The next couple of weeks are pretty normal. The prank war does escalate some since now you don’t have to worry about Karkat getting mad that you’re fucking with his moirail. A lot of the time the person who set up the prank isn’t around when it gets set off, but that isn’t the case when you sit down one day with a bottle of apple juice that decides to spray in your face when you open it.

“How!?” you snap as you jump up from the couch, wiping apple juice off your face (and it’s definitely apple juice) as Gamzee doubles over laughing.

“Must be, pff, must be some sorta miracle,” he manages to get out between laughs. You pick up the bottle where you dropped it and start to inspect it for some sort of trickery.

“Apple juice isn’t even carbonated! There’s no goddamn fizz man how the fuck?” you snap, unable to keep the absolute bewilderment out of your voice. This is horrible. It’s not like it’s the most original prank by far, fuck it’s a rip-off of the first one you pulled on _him,_ but you will never understand how he managed it and that’s a goddamn win in his box.

“Told ya brother, it’s a miracle,” he says, a huge dumb grin on his face and yeah he’s never going to tell you how. You will never be able to trust apple juice again.

“Fuck you dude,” you say, not able to come up with any good insults right now.

“Alright,” Gamzee says back all casual. You roll yours eyes at that, looking around for something other than your hand to wipe the juice off.

“Yeah sure, my place, ten o’clock, you better bring me flowers,” you joke absently, drying your face off with a jacket you found stuffed behind the couch. When you move it down to start patting at your shirt you realize that Gamzee has come close. Very close.

“Why not now?” he asks.

“Uh,” you start, pretty sure you were going to say _something_ about flowers and needing to wine and dine you, but that’s all you can manage to get out before he’s kissing you.

You drop the jacket and punch him in the face.

“What the _fuck!?”_ you snap and you are so fucking confused.

“Rude,” is all Gamzee says, holding his jaw where you punched it and looking at you equal parts miffed and disappointed.

“Dude, I’m dating Karkat!” you yell, because clearly he’s forgotten that if he’s trying to fucking make out with you.

“Me too brother, what’s that got ta do with this?” he asks, opening and closing his mouth widely afterwards and okay, you’re pretty sure from that you didn’t break anything. You're angry and confused but you're pretty sure right now that would be a bad thing.

“Yeah, but we also do the kissing thing, human dating shit, which means you don’t go macking on anyone else,” you explain, trying to keep yourself from getting too pissed. There was probably just some miscommunication somewhere. You guess it’s possible that Gamzee doesn’t know shit about human dating and _somehow_ thought this was okay.

“Motherfucker I know that,” or not. “I ain’t trying to step in on what you two got going on. Anything that can make Karkat all happy like you do is a pure miracle and I ain’t gonna fuck with that,” he says and now you’re really goddamn confused.

“Then what the fuck _was_ that?” you ask, and the bit of embarrassment that appears on Gamzee’s face is unexpected.

“I talked to Karkat about it first, he said he all up and told you he was okay with it,” he says and now Karkat was apparently _in_ on this and you are just so confused. Like, good to know that he didn’t try to make out with you behind Karkat’s back, because holy shit you would beat the crap out of him if he tried some bullshit like that.

Only now, you realize that whatever Karkat had given you permission on before was this. You still got one question left though.

“But what the fuck is 'it'?” you ask. Gamzee just stares at you, looking like he can’t believe you need to ask.

It takes a few more moments, but you slowly start to understand just what is going on here.

“Oh.”

“Yeah?” Gamzee asks, like he’s trying to help you along with this revelation.

“Oh my god.”

He’s nodding at you, making a motion with his hand like ‘go on.’

“I forgot pitch was a thing.”

The groan he lets out at that is so fucking done and mortified it’s downright impressive. He takes a few steps back to flop down in a heap on the couch, head in his hands. “Brother you cannot be _doing_ that to a motherfucker!” he says, and you can’t blame him for the frustration in his voice.

“My bad?” you try, and he just peaks out from between long fingers to give you a _look_ and yeah you deserve that.

“Well?” he asks after a moment, not looking at you again. “Now that you’ve all up and remembered it’s a motherfucking thing?”

“Uh,” you manage again, actually trying to think this through. This knowledge puts the last couple of months in a new light, to say the least. Like holy shit, fucking everything makes sense. How the _hell_ did you go this long without realizing? And just, goddamn you’ve been hitting on Gamzee. A lot.

“Maybe?” you say after a moment. The more you think about it the more you realize you are not strictly against the idea. “You sure Karkat’s cool with it?” you’re gonna check with him yourself before you do anything, but it’s best to ask.

“Of course, motherfucker what do you take me for? I ain’t making any kinda moves on my best friend’s matesprit without his say so,” Gamzee says, which okay that’s definitely a good thing to know.

“Boyfriend, but whatever,” you correct him. Karkat’s not all that good with quadrants so you both felt it was a more fitting title. 

“Alright, well, as long as Karkat really is cool with it, sure,” you say.

“Sure?” he asks, sounding like he’s not too certain if he should believe you.

“Sure,” you repeat with a nod, becoming a bit more at ease with this as you speak. You’re still pretty goddamn shocked that this is happening, but you’re also accepting that this is happening, and maybe even kinda excited? 

“Alright then,” Gamzee say, and then it’s quiet and neither of you are quite sure what to do. You’re starting to feel all sticky from the apple juice. “So, if I tried to kiss you right now would you punch me again or…?” Gamzee speaks up.

“Gotta talk to Karkat first,” you tell him, because yeah you’re not doing shit without his explicit approval. “And also probably take a goddamn shower,” you add on, and just the littlest bit of his smugness from before comes back at that.

“Yeah, might be a good idea to up and do that before the flitterspecks get stuck on you,” he says.

“Gnats dude, just say gnats,” you say, picking up the jacket and throwing it back where you found it behind the couch.

“But uh, yeah. I’m gonna go, talk to Karkat now, and stuff,” you say. Gamzee nods, back to being just as uncertain and confused about this as you are. “So um, you still down for my room, ten o’clock?” you ask, and that manages to get a laugh out of him.

“Yeah, yeah I’d be motherfucking down for that,” he says, and you’ve got your bearings back.

“Alright cool. Remember, bring me flowers or don’t even bother,” you say, heading towards the door as Gamzee rolls his eyes at you. “Also, I’ll send Karkat to look at your jaw,” you add, because yeah it’s starting to bruise already.

“Sounds good, and don’t worry, I’ll get you your fancy dead plants bro,” he says, and with that you close the door behind you, taking a moment to just lean against it and let it sink in that that just happened. Holy shit that just happened.

You might end up being just the slightest bit giddy on your way to find Karkat, just maybe.

**Author's Note:**

> oh no, it's my secret weakness, gamdavekat. I was feeling kinda down and a friend gave me the lovely promp of 'gamdave smooches _and_ davekat smooches'. There turned out to be a minimal amount of smooching, but this was still super fun to write. 
> 
> As always, thanks for reading and please let me know what you think!


End file.
